TENTMAKING FOR BEGINNERS: JEFF

Jeff was born in New Jersey, but grew up in Hong Kong. Then his folks moved to California, where he finished high school. While his older sister felt a calling to serve in China and pursued a career there, Jeff liked California. He never imagined that he too would end up working in China, loving it, and serving in a local church. How did it all happen?

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PREPARING FOR A BUSINESS CAREER IN CHINA: JOE

I first heard about tentmaking at Urbana 2003 when I was wondering how I could glorify God as a business major in college. After attending a workshop on the unique opportunities that Christian business people have, I was convinced that God was calling me to “business as missions”. Reaching different levels of society, influencing institutional change and meeting people’s physical and spiritual needs through sharing the gospel in a business setting were all exciting to me, but I wasn’t sure how to make it happen.

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CAREER DEVELOPMENT: STEPHANIE

A bright young woman, Stephanie is seeking God’s will for her career and future. She started exploring her calling to China when she joined our summer study abroad program as a junior in college. Now that she is graduating, she has to decide how to seek first the kingdom of God.

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OF TRADE & MISSIONS -- THEN & NOW

Since the time of the Apostle Paul, trade routes have always been highways for missions, taking missionaries from the Old World to the New, and from the West to the East. 

Church of the West: World Changers With Mixed Reviews

Before the U.S. emerged as the pre-eminent superpower after WWII, Europe had been dominating the world for 500 years. Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, England and France were the major powers that explored, traded, and colonized many parts of Asia, Africa and the Americas.

During those 500 years, missions and trade were associated with colonial expansion, resulting in criticism from historians and anthropologists.

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LESSONS FROM 1ST MILLENNIUM TRADING CENTER

Trading Centers: Hubs for Outreach

During the first millennium, the spread of Christianity by the Church of the East started from major trading centers that were cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural communities. With the coexistence and confluence of languages, ideas and religions, people were more open- minded, less tied to any set of traditions or beliefs. 

Along the ancient Silk Road, everyone needed a socially understandable identity to not only travel but settle down. As now so then, merchants could go anywhere and be welcomed. Furthermore, trade funded their travels.

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REACHING EMERGING TECH CAPITALS

Reaching Emerging Tech Capitals for the 10/40 Window

Business As Missions (BAM) is the cutting edge of the worldwide missions movement and becoming increasingly important as the least reached nations become harder and harder to access.

Closed & Open Doors

For years, the countries where the gospel is most needed have been closed to traditional missionaries. Many have therefore gone out as NGO workers in education, humanitarian service or community development. However, in recent years, the doors to NGOs are also closing.

 

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Laurie Fralick
ABOUT LANGUAGE STUDY

You may survive speaking only English in China because many Chinese people understand some English. Friends can also help in the short term. If you are going to live and serve long term, however, then there are at least three reasons for language study beyond communicating basic needs.

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ABOUT CONTINUING EDUCATION

Have you watched how a car makes a pit stop in races? Whether for fuel or fixes, pit stops are necessary, especially in long races. The timing of those stops is part of the overall strategy for winning. Otherwise, the driver may lose momentum, get sidetracked or derailed, and forfeit the race.

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ABOUT DATING & MARRIAGE

Dear GoLiveServe, 

Recently I started dating someone that I met at a Christian conference. We seem to have so much in common. He may be the one, but how can I be sure when I am not even sure about how my career and China will play out? What should I look out for?

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ABOUT CAREER DEVELOPMENT

A bright young woman, Stephanie is seeking God’s will for her career and future. She started exploring her calling to China when she joined our summer study abroad program as a junior in college. Now that she is graduating, she has to decide how to seek first the kingdom of God.

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ABOUT PARENTAL EXPECTATIONS

Dear GoLiveServe,

At Urbana, I felt God’s call to go to China. I just got my masters degree in teaching. My job prospects here are good because I am in a high-need area; therefore, my parents want me to stay in the U.S. How do I honor my parents and still be obedient to God?

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UNDERSTANDING OUR TIMES

Every day we read disturbing headlines from around the world: radical factions escalating the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from both sides; IS jihadists massacring Christians in Iraq; Islamic terrorists kidnapping school girls in Nigeria; militant Buddhists persecuting Muslims in Myanmar; the government taking down crosses from church buildings in China … and the list goes on.

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CHINA & THE MUSLIM WORLD: FROM CHAOS TO THE CROSS

Since the Arab Spring more than two years ago, the Muslim world continues to make headlines—civil war in Syria, violence and bloodshed in Egypt, continued unrest in Tunisia and Libya, unrelenting insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan even as the U.S. and her allies struggle to pull out.  Large populations of displaced refugees now threaten the stability of neighboring countries.  As age-old sectarian and tribal hatreds rage across the region, one CNN journalist sadly concluded that there seems little that outsiders can do but wait for the volcano to finish erupting.

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